Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

11.9.10 | Young people express their politics in new ways, often invisible to older generations. Their commitments are to social causes, and their actions are more often communicated across online networks or through individual responses such as buycotts (buying products that give back to society and rewarding businesses with online buzz). They prefer immediate action through volunteering rather than abstract politics.

This week’s StudentSpeak webisode offers a peek into this new style of civic commitment. Inspired by a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, teens involved in the Engage Project coupled their design skills with graphic design software to create a statement about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Engage Project, a five-week summer program based at YOUmedia, Chicago Public Library’s digital space for teens, asks participants to become both artists and activists. After viewing and discussing contemporary and classic American art, the teens created digital media projects connecting art with social change.

“Some of the teens had never visited the Art Institute before,” says Marcus Lumpkin, one of YOUmedia’s librarians and mentors. “And along with that, they’d never taken any time to formally talk about art.”

The experience was a powerful one for 16-year-old Edward Green, who said the museum art inspired him.

Green, who has an interest in graphic design, collaborated on an installation with Sannya Munir. They wanted to demonstrate why Chicago residents need to pay attention to the environmental crisis, despite the city’s geographical distance, so they created a mock product called “Gulf Water” featuring bottles filled with an oily mixture.

“I thought it was interesting that the spill in the Gulf wasn’t impacting our lives here in Chicago as much as it should,” Munir, 18, said. “I wanted to create a project around that.”

“It was to say: Eventually, if we don’t stop these companies from destroying the environment, or we don’t really effectively clean up, one day our water supply is going to look like this,” she added, pointing to a brown bottle.

For the graphic design component, Green took advantage of the software available in the YOUmedia space, experimenting with image editing programs such as Photoshop, GIMP and Aviary to create labels for the bottles. Green made several revisions based on feedback he received from peers and mentors on iRemix, the group’s social networking site.

Green credits the tools and support at YOUmedia for prompting him to think seriously about a future in digital media.

“I didn’t want to be a graphic designer before coming here because I didn’t think it was a safe career to go into,” Green told Spotlight. “It basically just opened up my whole viewpoint.”

StudentSpeak, a video series produced by Spotlight, goes behind the scenes to show how teens use digital media in their daily lives. View previous webisodes here.